Posted on 05/15/2018 8:19:19 AM PDT by ethom
Tom Wolfe, the white suit wearing iconic author of works such as “Bonfire of the Vanities” and “The Right Stuff” has died on Tuesday in New York City.
Oh, man. Genius writer. The Right Stuff, Bonfire, A Man in Full... loved ‘em all. As I understand it, he was a pretty decent baseball player at Washington & Lee, too. R.I.P.
I remember his being interviewed by (I think) Johnny Carson. As the interview progressed, a long ‘comma’ of his comb over started to descend down his forehead. I don’t think he or Carson were aware of it, but the studio audience was and every time the comma dropped a bit more, the audience started to chuckle. Now what he was saying wasn’t that funny and he started to look a bit uncomfortable. Anyway, the hair kept dropping and the audience kept laughing until finally they broke for a commercial. When they came back, his hair was back in place.
I always kind of saw him as a straight Oscar Wilde.
Tom Wolfe, great author. RIP.
The book “The Devil’s Candy” by Julie Salamon, is a brilliant work on the making of the movie and how Hollywood screwed, with because of political correctness, one of the best book I have ever read.
https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Candy-Bonfire-Vanities-Hollywood/dp/0385308248
Highlight: Melanie Griffith getting a breast enhancement HALFWAY through the shooting of the movie.
I highly recommend reading “Bonfire” then watch the movie, then read “The Devil’s Candy.”
Cool!
A novelist who wrote books about serious issues that people actually enjoy reading. Rare today. RIP
I started out with “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.” I thought it was going to glorify the hippies but, even better, it mocked them hilariously.
I sat next to him in the forward cabin of a delta flight from La Guardia to Moisant field in the 80s
He had on his cream suit etc
We talked the whole way
Two southerners who called Manhattan temporary home....I’m not sure if he ever left till now...I did
He loved that my dad was a VMI grad and fighter pilot and me Ole Miss and mom Miss Mississippi...we talked about Richmond at length and he knew my dads best friend who was prominent there
I told him my first book of his was of course TEKAAT....He said he never figured he’d be the narrator of a generational bridge from the Beats to the Hippies....and that LSD made folks temporarily insane....I agreed quietly in my mind lol
He said Kesey was built like a bull and with same constitution and was in it for the girls....he thought
A really approachable guy......great writer
Three great books....not many writers get that ...
Man Bonfire sure foretold our future didn’t it?
My liberal Barnard teacher girlfriend was impressed with my experience ....
Wolfe was one of us...a natural conservative
It was by far the worst movie I have ever seen.
Maybe his book was better, but the movie was terrible.
Read an essay of his once. it discussed the worth of critics that downplayed the value and artistry of his works. He said why should they be given any account when the works themselves had impact sold well and endured — what more proof of the falsehood of the critic than those three aspects.
And because he was so early out of the cannon, he got away with it to a degree no one writing today could do in the same city or venues.
Enjoyed your first-person account; and could almost picture it.
His work had profound influence. If universities were still teaching anything of quality, it would be required of all English majors. And sociology majors, journalism majors, art, architecture, city planning, history...
Indeed
We are living Bomfire day to day over race....and that book was over thirty years ago
Wolfe was very personable
I rarely bothered celebs then or now
IIRC, that scene was in “A Man in Full.”
RIP.
As your post revealed, you were one of his people in many ways.
I think of that book, Bonfire of the Vanities, almost every time I am driving in any city in the U.S., and at many other times as well, when dealing with ego or materialsim in myself or others.
I was distressed to read in one of the proliferating online memorials today that he held himself out as an atheist. I hope he changed his mind recently. A friend divulged to me in 1969 a scandal concerning him that I will take to my grave, but his life seems to have achieved a steady keel over the long haul, even in the face of his notoriety. He appears to have resisted the party circuit of his privileged surroundings; either that, or after his exposé of Bernstein, he didn't get invited to the liberals' parties any more (and to the NY publishing establishment, any rare conservative ones were not worth dishing about). Or it could be that his seemingly quiet personal life was due to that old platitude: Avoid talking to a writer—you might show up as a caricature of yourself in his next book. He certainly punctured many an inflated cultural balloon.
One of the finest writers of our time.
Highly influential and a talent of the highest order.
RIP, Tom.
A natural conservative who was sucked into the black hole of Manhattan liberalism and never left.
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